Just saw the met exhibit of his so called 1st painting, wanted to impress on how good a draftsman he was as well as a sculptor, and to show that all artists must have good knowledge and understanding of drawing, composition and the human body before they can proceed to other fields of art.

More small progress on the course. Little by little i will get to where i want to arrive.

MADAME X
Sargent learned the craft of painting in Paris, where he lived for some time, but what prompted his move to London? He had exhibited paintings at the Paris Salon for quite a few years to the raving applause of all critics. He was famed as one the best portrait painters in Paris and had trained in the École des Beaux-Arts and also under Carolus-Duran from whom he might have been influenced to do portraiture, as he was more inclined to do landscapes when he started. He was also influenced by the works of Velázquez, although he might have gotten that from Carolus-Duran as well, as Duran studied Velázquez fervently.
Of all the exhibit artworks in the Paris Salon by Sargent the most critized and some would say shocking at that time was the portrait of Madame X (originally called Portrait de Mme, maybe to hide the subjects identity, but was unsuccessful in this as her own mother requested the painting to be removed from the Salon). Her pose and her pale skin as well her black dress with one strap hanging down from the shoulder (later fixed by Sargent to show as we now see it in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the strap straight on her shoulder and at the same time changed the name of the painting to Portrait of Madame X, to give it a more mysterious tone to the painting.), the sexuality of the portrait itself was alarming to the France society which received it with shock. Unfortunately it created a scandal and Madame Gautreau (the lady posing for the portrait) was humiliated by the affair and Sargent would move to London. Interestingly enough the portrait was pursued by Sargent himself, he asked a mutual acquaintance to set up a meeting to discuss a portrait painting, not customary as most or all portraits of the time were commissions.
Today it's known as Sargent's masterpiece, as he himself said in a letter to the director of the Met when he sold it; "I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done."

Well I'm getting closer to finishing plate 1.2 of the course, here's some small progress on it, hopefully I'll have it done by this weekend and will post here.

Rembrandt van Rijn
(July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669)
Was a Dutch painter. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. He was the premier portrait painter of his time and a made a good fortune by doing so, but later in his life he ended up broke even as his art was still revered. He taught almost all the influential Dutch artists of his time. His time as an artist is usually referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. He had many misfortunes on the personal side of his life as 3 of his 4 children died after a few days or weeks of life, only his 4th son Titus lived into adulthood. His works are amazing and it was said that he created over 600 paintings during his life, but recently they have been counted down to about 300. What most impresses me about Van Rijn is how showed the realism and emotion with his thick strokes and dark colors, the mood of his paintings were so credible like you could feel the pain, happiness or seriousness of the subject. Rembrandt outlived his son Titus, who died in 1668, leaving a baby daughter. Rembrandt died within a year of his son, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk.